Halloween Week Fun!

We've had a fun week before Halloween around here! I gave the kids this game I'd had my eye on forever- it's a board game of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and is really cute. There are even costumed characters to play and you go trick-or-treating and when you have 5 pieces of candy or money, you have to go back to the pumpkin patch to share your treats with Linus. It's really fun and the kids LOVE trick-or-treating and getting "candy" with this game. We've basically been playing games non-stop for weeks, and this one's been a huge hit this week- we've played several rounds of this game!

Daniel also wanted to set up his eye cars and tell spooky stories, a la the Mater and the Ghost Light movie short (an activity he's done many times before), and since it was Halloween week, it was quite fitting. He wanted all the lights off, pumpkins and candles lit, eye cars all set up, spider web artwork and other spooky decorations nearby- he had the whole table covered with story props, it was so cute. He then proceeded to tell spooky stories about a haunted house- "and the ghosts went whoooooo!...and the door went bam (he slammed a book for this one!)...and the wind went (he rattled his foil party balloon for this one)..." and so on- he was really hamming it up and having a great time! He even crawled under the table so he could pop out with a big BOO! Annabel saw how much fun he was having and she wanted to tell stories, too. We had the best time sitting around the table making things spookier, making shadows by candlelight. It was so nice to just hang out together as a family like this- I love Daniel for getting us all together like that, he's always been so good at bringing us together, it's really special.

And Thursday afternoon, after Annabel's costume parade and after checking out the goodies Annabel got from school and the goodies they both got from Grandma Cheryl, the kids were quite inspired to play trick-or-treating in our house- they raided the pantry and put snacks at each doorway upstairs, found buckets, put on "costumes" (Daniel wore his new pilot costume, Annabel declared herself a "heart-maker" since wearing her new sweater with hearts all over it), and they trick-or-treated at each doorway, even saying Thank you. It was so fun. And then we played Halloween Party in Daniel's room- he made decorations, put up our pumpkin lights, and he made a pin-the-tail game and we had snacks and stories...it was a fun party, the three of us. The kids just really love Halloween, can you tell?! I remember when Daniel was little, he pretended to go trick-or-treating for months after Halloween was over. So we're pretty excited Halloween is upon us!

 Playing our new trick-or-treat game- It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

Daniel telling spooky stories!

Annabel makes Daniel's pumpkin go "BOOO!"- Love her scary face!

Pitch black in the house- except for glowing pumpkins, glowing ghosts, and a candle.

Annabel was making scary faces by putting the fake tea lights up to her chin and mouth- she's funny!